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Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 2 7/2/2019 1:02:23 PM Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 3 7/2/2019 1:02:24 PM T here it was again! Jocelyn and June looked at each other. The notes from the Blue Danube floated down from the ‘abandoned’ house. The strains of the music, though faint, could be clearly heard from the road skirting the house. They shivered a little and quickened their steps as the air swished through the tall pine trees. It was uncharacteristic of the ‘J Sisters’, as people called them, to get scared easily. They were always known to be quite daring. Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 4 7/2/2019 1:02:24 PM They used to go off on their own to climb the hills behind their house, or fishing with the villagers in the mountain stream when they were not busy playing basketball or football. They were quite good at it and had, in fact, represented their school at many basketball and football tournaments. And now, they were almost running away from the lonely road in front of the Williamson’s Cottage. People called it a haunted house. But they had never believed in it. Yet, for the past couple of days, on the way home from school as they passed by, the twins couldn’t help pricking their ears as if expecting to hear something. Sometimes they heard notes, sometimes everything was silent. But they could not discuss with anyone about what they felt. They did not have any proof. People would laugh and think that it was one of their numerous pranks for which they were so famous, both of them thought. What added to their secret fear was that they knew about a connection between the piano music and the haunted cottage. Kong* Mary—who looked after their house, had told them one evening, her eyes round with excitement: “My father told me that a British soldier *Kong: Khasi word for sister Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 5 7/2/2019 1:02:24 PM Williamson Sahib used to stay there long ago. He had fallen in love with Shillong when he was here during the Second World War and decided to stay on after the war got over. His wife came to join him from England. They bought this house from Mr. Marbaniang. They didn’t have any children. The Sahib used to play the piano very well. In the evening people heard him play and his wife singing with him. But sadly...” Kong Mary let the words hang in the air as she chewed on the kwai*. But they prodded her and she continued reluctantly, “His wife died in an accident. They had gone for a picnic at the Shillong Peak on that sunny summer day. But somehow she slipped on a mossy stone and fell down the hill. She was buried here in the local cemetery. Williamson Sahib never returned to England. He still played the piano every evening. One summer, after five years or so, after his wife’s death, the windows of the cottage remained closed for two days. There was no piano notes coming out from the house either. The maid who worked in his house told the neighbours and they informed the police. The police broke open the door. They found him dead on his bed.” “But what is it to do with the ghosts?” the girls asked Kong Mary. She whispered dramatically, “After one week of the Sahib’s *kwai: khasi word for betel-nut Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 6 7/2/2019 1:02:25 PM Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 7 7/2/2019 1:02:25 PM death, people could again hear the piano in the evening. Who could have played it? The house was locked. Williamson Sahib’s ghost, who else? Mr Marbaniang’s son, who is an officer in Delhi, has tried to sell the house a number of times but who’ll buy a haunted house?” Jocelyn and June could only laugh at Kong’s ’great ghost‘ story. “Why, we pass by everyday. We’ve never heard piano or any instrument playing there. All this is bunkum.” Brought up by Uncle Henry, the twins could not help being sceptical. He was their father’s Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 8 7/2/2019 1:02:25 PM brother and a renowned geologist. He insisted on developing a scientific mind which questioned exactly the kind of belief like Williamson Sahib’s ghost playing the piano. If he knew that Kong Mary had told them ghost stories he would have been very angry indeed. The twins had found a home with Dr Henry Sulei after their parents passed away prematurely. He had never married. Where was the time anyway? When he was not roaming around the hills collecting stone samples or attending some conference or the other around the world, he was in the hills searching for rare butterflies and orchids to document them. “Who knows they’d disappear one day, the way we humans are destroying the environment!” he would often exclaim. A bit eccentric, yes, but Dr Sulei was very fond of his nieces. He genuinely loved them and often apologised that he could not spend more time with them. Thankfully, Kong Mary was kind and looked after the girls very well in his absence. Sometimes in summer, their uncle took them along too in the expeditions on weekends, to places like Cherrapunji and Mawphlang where orchids grew abundantly. Kong Mary would then pack a picnic basket with sandwiches and cakes and a flask of tea. Rare though the occasions were, Jocelyn and June looked forward to these impromptu outings. “There’s the Jewel Orchid, and there’s the Rat Tail orchid,” Uncle Henry would point out in the woods smelling of pines, and teach Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 9 7/2/2019 1:02:26 PM Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 10 7/2/2019 1:02:26 PM them to recognise the different varieties. “We have some of the rarest specimens in Meghalaya, do you know that? There are more than 300 species in this state alone,” he would say proudly. In the winter evenings, when they sat around the fireplace, he would talk about his experience in South Eastern countries like Thailand and Singapore, where he had visited their beautiful butterfly and orchid parks. As to the twins’ current preoccupation with Williamson’s Cottage, it was due to a strange happening one afternoon. That day, the moody Shillong weather had suddenly changed. It was so sunny a little while ago, but suddenly it turned dark. They had just passed the Garrison Ground and were climbing the steep hill road that led to their house when heavy raindrops started falling suddenly. They ran to the nearest place to take shelter. It was the verandah of the haunted cottage. As Jocelyn and June waited for the rain to stop, suddenly notes from a piano seemed to float out from inside the house. At first they could not make out if they had heard correctly because the rain was drumming on the tin roof. But then as the rain softened to a drizzle, the notes were clear. Jocelyn knew how to play the piano herself and she clearly remembered the notes from Strauss Blue Danube. Jocelyn and June were not exactly the panicky type of girls, but the notes of the piano Music of Hill-Eng RP 1st 02-07-2019.indd 11 7/2/2019 1:02:27 PM